Friday
Friday is Rebecca Black's first song ever, and was made into a highly relevant video. It was produced by ARK Music Factory. Although it received over 160 million views in the first three months it was out, it also received over 3 million dislikes. The reviews were highly negative. In time, Black's mentor, Fat Usher, tried to charge people to watch "Friday." Black took full control of her video and deleted it afterward. Eventually she put it back on YouTube. Lyrics History Rebecca Black's parents paid 4 thousand dollars to have ARK Music Factory produce the video under the impression it would be awesome. The company warned Black might not become famous as a result, but Black was excited for her friends and family to see it, and hoped it would help her begin a career in music later on. She did not initially intend for "Friday" to be as public as YouTube material, however, a friend of hers made it so. Reception The video received 4,000 views before a comedian named Michael Nelson posted it on Twitter, directing even more attention and rendering the video viral. It was widely hated by the majority of YouTube, receiving 3 million dislikes over 450 thousand likes. The video was mostly criticized for the song's simple lyrics and the use of Auto-Tune on Black's vocals. Just 2 months after its release, comments became subject to pre-moderation. Two days later, commenting was disabled altogether. After reading the harsh reviews of "Friday", Black said that "those hurtful comments really shocked me." ARK Music Factory offered to take the video down from YouTube, but Black refused the offer, saying that she did not wish "to give the haters the satisfaction that they got me so bad I gave up." In response to criticism over the song's significant use of Auto-Tune, Black performed an acoustic version during an interview with ABC News, which earned more dislikes than likes as well. By November 2011, it had over 180,000 dislikes. Later in the interview Black's mother, Kelly, stated that she was angry after threatening comments brought Black to tears. Black said, however, that soon she was able to ignore such comments, and had even asked Justin Bieber to perform a duet with her. Despite its negative reviews, Friday was Black's most popular video, ranking as the 22nd most watched video of all time on YouTube. After an interview, Rolling Stone's Perpetua praised Black and said, "She is actually a pretty decent singer. ... She is a total sweetheart. ... Black comes off as a well-adjusted, happy and grateful kid." He also mentioned Black's intention to donate part of the profits from the song to school arts programs and relief efforts in Japan following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Benni Cinkle, who appeared in the video, released her own song entitled "Can You See Me Now" and created an anti-bullying organization (That Girl In Pink Foundation) due to the negative response she got from Friday. Message Friday did not seem to have any specific moral, except that it's never a bad idea to got out and do something on the weekend. Other uses A TV series named Glee released a cover version and performed it in Season 2 of their show. It was also performed by Katy Perry and Justin Bieber, among others. It was later used in Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Many parodies, including "Prom Night" and "Friday: Brock's Dub", have been uploaded as well. Listen! Listen! Category:RB songs Category:Songs with more "dislikes" than "likes" Category:Songs from 2011 Category:Friday